In the Champions League the time has come for decisive matches, which will determine the further tournament path of teams. One of such matches will be the confrontation between Shakhtar and Real Madrid from Madrid. On the eve of the match the situation in the group looks like this. Borussia M?nchengladbach settled at the top with eight points on its balance sheet. Even a draw with Inter in case of the Pitmen’s defeat can guarantee the stallions a ticket to the playoffs. The second is “Real”, which has seven points in the asset. The victory in this match will definitely guarantee the royal club access to the playoffs. Shakhtar have earned four points so far. There is nowhere to retreat. A draw in this match is unlikely to suit the team before going to Inter. Well, the quartet closes “Inter”. The “nerradzuri” have only two points and have not too great chances to break out of the group. Luis Castro’s team has successfully started. First, Shakhtar achieved success in Madrid, where they retained the victory in the match against Real Madrid. Thanks to the referee for not counting the Madrid goal at 90 + 2 minutes. The 3:2 victory in Spain is the Pitmen’s only victory so far. This was followed by a draw at home with Inter (0:0), followed by a failure in both matches with Borussia M?nchengladbach. By the way, these two confrontations were in many ways decisive for teams. Shakhtar lost 0:6 at home and 0:4 away. In recent matches results may have been affected by the personnel situation. Now it has stabilized a little, but there are losses. Only Ismaily and Viktor Kornienko will definitely not play in the match. David Khocholava, Dentinho and Evgeniy Konoplyanka are in doubt.
Roma clearly expects to rehabilitate for the failure last season, as a result of which the Romans were left without the Champions League. By the start of the ninth round, Paulo Fonseca’s team is coming up in third place in the table. The Wolves are just one point behind the second Sassuolo and two points more than the first Milan. But behind them are Juventus, Inter, Napoli and Atalanta, which will surely add more. In the last round Roma beat Parma with a score 3:0 at home quite easily, missing several key players. Thus, the Romans secured their third victory in a row in Serie A and, in general, their streak without defeats in the championship reached the mark of seven matches, if we approach the statistics strictly formally, because the defeat to Verona in the first round was technical. In the Europa League Roma beat Cluj last week away with a score 2:0 without any problems, thus securing a ticket to the playoffs.
